HABITAT.—Nepal; Darjeeling.
DESCRIPTION.—Dusky brown above, dusky hoary below. According to Hodgson it is "distinguished for its smooth coat or pelage, wherein the long hairy piles are almost wanting. It is a house rat, like M. niveiventer, but much rarer, and frequents the mountains rather than the valleys." The long hairs are 11/16 inch in length, horny at the base, with black tip, the short fur ashy, with rufous tips.
SIZE.—Head and body, 6½ inches; tail 7¼ inches.
Blyth writes of this species ('J. A. S. B.' vol. xxxii. 1863, p. 343): "We have several specimens of what I take to be this rat from Darjeeling. They are especially distinguished by the fineness and softness of the fur. One specimen only, of eight from Darjeeling, which I refer to this species, has the lower parts pure white, abruptly defined."
There is a smaller rat, only four inches in length, which agrees exactly with the above, which Hodgson named M. horietes. It is not mentioned in Blyth's Catalogue, but it has not been overlooked by Blyth, as Jerdon's remarks would lead one to suppose, for in the 'Memoir on the Rats and Mice in India,' by the former, in the 'J. A. S. B.' vol. xxxii. for 1863, it is entered with a quotation from Hodgson.
[NO. 344. MUS CAUDATIOR.]
The Chestnut Rat (Jerdon's No. 183).
HABITAT.—The lower Eastern Himalayas, i.e., Nepal, Darjeeling, &c.; also in Burmah, Lower Pegu, and Martaban.
DESCRIPTION.—"Above a fine bright cinnamon colour, with inconspicuous black tips; the under-parts white, which is abruptly divided from the cinnamon hue above" (Blyth). Sometimes yellowish-white (Jerdon). Muzzle sharp; ears and tail long.
SIZE.—Head and body, about six inches; tail, 7¾ inches.
According to Blyth the Nepal specimens are darker than those from Burmah, which he says "differs only from the Nepalese animal of Mr. Hodgson by having the upper parts entirely of a bright cinnamon colour."